In Summary: All copies of our OptOpt program have now expired and OptOut is not being renewed. I am working on a very different and even more important new program (the GRC NetFilter) and Lavasoft is offering "Ad-Aware", the leading, free, spyware detector and remover.

Here are the details:

What Happened With OptOut?Thanks to your support, an incredible 3,044,124 copies of OptOut were downloaded during OptOut's one-year life. This helped to bring a great deal of public attention to the rather extensive OptOut web site which, in turn, brought a tremendous amount of pressure to bear upon the purveyors of Spyware systems.The Spyware vendors responded by creating their own spyware removing tools (which none had troubled themselves to do before OptOut). They added clear and comprehensive privacy statements to their web sites and into their spyware, and they revised the operation of their spyware to be more privacy aware.The problem has not gone away by any means, but just the threat of a "full feature" version of OptOut succeeded in creating significant social change.Finally, the German company Lavasoft picked up and ran with the OptOut concept, creating the excellent and completely FREE "Ad-Aware" spyware detection and removal utility.Having brought about the social and implementation changes we were hoping to, and with Ad-Aware being comprehensive, free, excellent, and available, our job with spyware was complete.

What Replaces OptOut?First, if you don't yet know about the free Ad-Aware spyware detection and removal utility be sure to check out Lavasoft's Ad-Aware.Second, as you have probably guessed, I already have something completely new and very exciting up my sleeve and in mind for the future . . .

Click image for additional information (and enlargement).

Clicking on the image above will take you to the GRC NetFilter Announcement and Description Page. That page provides complete background and orientation about my next Internet security and privacy utility. Check it out! As explained on that page, the GRC NetFilter and our new eCommerce facility are under construction. All subscribers to the GRC Corporate News Blog will be notified the moment the GRC NetFilter is ready for its free, one time only, 30-day introductory evaluation testing. If you would like to receive this notification please be sure to subscribe to that blog to be notified of this and of any other information.

What About the OptOut Web Site?The OptOut site (see all of the links below) will remain online just as it is for now. It will ultimately be extensively revised and merged into the GRC NetFilter web site once that product is released.Since development of OptOut has been formally discontinued, please send all reports of suspicious new spying behavior directly to the terrific folks at Lavasoft:

Removing / Uninstalling / Deleting OptOutSince OptOut did not require "installation" into the system, removing it is as simple as deleting the "optout.exe" file.If the "System Startup Quick Check" option is enabled on the Options page, you should first "uncheck" that option so that Windows will not attempt to run OptOut on startup. Then simply delete the single OptOut.exe file from your system's hard drive. That's all there is to it!

I am cranking away as hard as I can building our new ultra-secure and ultra-privacy conscious eCommerce system . . . and the new GRC NetFilter. I will have it all ready for you as soon as humanly possible!Thank you for your support and patience.